Dating app Tinder faces sexual discrimination lawsuit

Los Angeles dating app Tinder is being sued by its former vice president of marketing, Whitney Wolfe, who says she faced sexual harassment and discrimination before the company allegedly forced her out and stripped of her co-founder status.

In a 67-page lawsuit, Wolfe alleges she was repeatedly called a “whore” by the company’s chief marketing officer, Justin Mateen, whom she had dated. Mateen also told Wolfe that he was taking away her co-founder title because having a young female co-founder “makes the company seem like a joke” and “devalues” Tinder, according to the lawsuit, which was recently filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

A spokesman for IAC/InterActive Corp., which owns a majority stake in Tinder and is also a defendant, told Reuters that Mateen had been suspended pending an ongoing internal investigation, and called messages he sent Wolfe “inappropriate.” “We unequivocally condemn these messages,” the spokesman said, “but believe that Ms. Wolfe’s allegations with respect to Tinder and its management are unfounded.”